Defective products cause thousands of injuries to innocent, unsuspecting consumers each year and sometimes those injuries can be debilitating, even deadly. Product Liability Attorneys know that many defective product claims go unreported and that is unfortunate because then manufacturers and sellers of dangerous products are not held accountable and injured victims are not compensated for their injuries and damages. New Jersey product liability law provides protections and recourse for consumers who have been injured by dangerous and defective products.
Types of Product Defects
Typical defective product cases will allege that a product contained a design defect, a manufacturing defect, or did not come with adequate warnings or instructions and as a result, the plaintiff was injured.
- Design defect – A design is defective when the construction of the product conforms with the design instructions, but the resulting product is not reasonably safe for its intended or foreseeable use. Design defects may result in an entire line of products being recalled and pulled from the shelves. An example of this would be a bicycle helmet that does not adequately protect the head because the helmet’s design instructions did not provide for an adequate amount of padding to absorb forceful impacts.
- Manufacturing defect – A manufacturing defect occurs when the construction of the product does not conform to the design instructions and the resulting product as constructed is not reasonably safe for its intended or foreseeable use. Going back to the helmet example, a bicycle helmet’s design requires a specific amount of padding and particular placement inside a bicycle helmet, but during the construction of the helmet, a piece of padding falls off of a helmet before it is properly affixed. As a result of the missing piece of padding, there is not an adequate amount of padding to absorb an impact and protect the head and now you have a manufacturing defect.
- Failure to warn or instruct – A failure to warn or instruct, sometimes called a marketing defect, occurs when a product does not come with proper warnings of the product’s risk of danger or instructions for proper use. An example of this would be manufacturing a helmet for t-ball batters that happens to look is similar to typical bicycle helmets. If t-ball helmet safety standards are different than bicycle helmet safety standards, it would be necessary to warn consumers that the helmet is intended to be used for t-ball and may not meet bicycle helmet safety standards.
Defective Product Defenses
Defendants will raise defenses to product liability cases such as the plaintiff was not using the product as it was intended to be used or the plaintiff modified or altered the product after purchase which is what made the product dangerous. An Experienced Product Liability Attorney knows what defenses are commonly raised and will be prepared to discredit those defenses.
Contact a Lawrenceville Product Liability Attorney at The Law Offices of Greg Prosmushkin, P.C. if you or a loved one has been injured by a defective product. Our skilled and knowledgeable Product Liability Attorneys will discuss your claim, injuries sustained, and recovery options.